The following declaration was delivered in Parliament today in response to the draft resolution on the re-establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee to initiate and introduce legislation amending Section 25 of the Constitution.
- Please find attached Afrikaans and English soundbites by Dr Annelie Lotriet MP, Chairperson of the DA Caucus.
Speaker, it with is with a tremendous sense of irony and utter disbelief that I make this declaration today.
Last week Wednesday, the Minister of Finance told the nation of the dire financial situation the country was in. And warned of a sovereign debt crisis if we cannot improve the economy. He also referred to our enormous investment needs that cannot be delivered by government alone and that the private sector accounts for most of the investment spending in the economy. The country needs more than loans – it needs investment.
But here’s the disconnect. Less than a week after the Finance Minister painted this very sombre picture of our economy, the ANC government wants to re-establish the Ad Hoc Committee to initiate and introduce legislation amending Section 25 of the Constitution. The Committee that has to finalise legislation to allow the state to expropriate your property without compensation.
The truth is that nothing dissuades investors like a threat to the security of their assets, regardless of how innocuously it is couched. Local and foreign investors will think twice before investing in South Africa.
The last thing South Africa can afford now, amid a pandemic and an economic crisis that has been in the making for 26 years and exacerbated by the lockdown, is a focus on expropriation without compensation.
Jobs are being lost, businesses are closing down, farm attacks are escalating and the state’s supposed safety net such as SASSA and the UIF are letting desperate citizens down.
Speaker, en die ANC se groot beleidfokus in hierdie tye – Onteiening sonder Vergoeding!
Wat ʼn ongelooflike verwyderdheid van die werklikheid. Die land is in nood, ons het nou elke bietjie hulp nodig wat daar is. Elke besluit van die regering moet nou daarop gemik wees om vetroue en sekuriteit aan die landsburgers te bied. Die land so aantreklik as moontlik maak om beleggers te lok en aan te moedig.
In stede daarvan om te erken dat grondhervorming oor die afgelope 26 jaar aan die agterste speen gesuig het as gevolg van korrupsie, onvermoë en ʼn onbekwame staat, word ʼn komitee weer in die lewe geroep wat vernietigende gevolge op ekonomiese en sosiaal-maatskaplike vlak teweeg gaan bring.
Hierdie is duidelik nie ʼn regering wat die welsyn van al sy burgers op die hart dra nie. In hierdie tyd van ongekende nood was dit die boere, wit en swart, kommersieël en opkomend, wat hul harte vir die mense van die land oopgemaak het. En die ANC regering se reaksie? Kom ons fokus weer op onteiening sonder vergoeding.
Speaker, die DA steun nie die wysging van art 25 van die Grondwet nie, ons steun nie die gebrekkige prosesse wat tot dusver gevolg is nie en ons stel voor dat hierdie komitee en die hele proses van die tafel verwyder word.
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